| barriozona |
| HISTORY IS ABOUT TO CHANGE Grassroots Journalism |
| Published by the Hispanic Institute of Social Issues |
From Phoenix, Arizona to the World Wide Web
Sheriff Joe Arpaio Draws Students, Protesters and
Supporters at Cronkite School's Interview
Supporters at Cronkite School's Interview
Before and after the interview, sheriff's opponents set a tone of disruption. At the end, the
commotion itself took over the event.
commotion itself took over the event.
Text and photographs by Eduardo Barraza Photo Gallery Watch Video
UGLY WORDS Verbal confrontations
between the sheriff’s foes and friends
continued outside the building for a
while.
between the sheriff’s foes and friends
continued outside the building for a
while.
POINTING THE FINGER According to
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the
Media is responsible for "calling him"
and not the other way around. He
ended up walking out of the event he
attended at Cronkite School in Phoenix.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the
Media is responsible for "calling him"
and not the other way around. He
ended up walking out of the event he
attended at Cronkite School in Phoenix.
FULL HOUSE All together, the event
was a banquet for Arpaio’s hunger for
attention. Journalists, photographers,
TV cameras, professors, students,
supporters, protestors, police officers,
songs, signs, chants, arguments, and
record attendance packed the place.
was a banquet for Arpaio’s hunger for
attention. Journalists, photographers,
TV cameras, professors, students,
supporters, protestors, police officers,
songs, signs, chants, arguments, and
record attendance packed the place.
| Operation Immigration Arrests, Protests, and Turmoil in Maricopa County |
| A raw-footage documentary of the highly controversial immigration sweeps conducted by the Maricopa County Sheriff Office, in the heart of Arizona. A revealing visual testimony of a Sheriff determined to fight undocumented immigration, and the struggle of human rights advocates and people decided to stop him. This DVD shows an unquestionable evidence of the crude and volatile social atmosphere prevailing in one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States. |
| Price: $20.00 +s/h $3.80 Total $23.80 Lenght: 45 minutes EAN: 978-0-9797814-6-9 |
| Send mail orders to: HISI PO Box 50553 Mesa, Arizona 85208-0028 Include check or Money Order payable to HISI in the amount of $23.80 |
| Another great product by the Arizona-based Hispanic Institute of Social Issues |
| Hispanic Institute of Social Issues © 2006-2009 All rights reserved. webmaster@hisi.org |
Phoenix, Arizona. November 30, 2009 – A night that was deemed to be a “First Amendment Forum”
for faculty, staff and students of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication,
turned into a scenario where practical lessons about grassroots organizing and protesting set the
tone of the event and dominated the dynamics of the night.
The forum, organized by Cronkite, could it have been just another “Meet the Press” event, but the
very name and likeness of the guest assured a night as controversial as him. Maricopa Sheriff Joe
Arpaio –synonymous of protest and approval, abuse of power and support, and defiance and
enforcement, depending on what side of the polarizing debate a person stands on– guaranteed a
full house, heated arguments and protests.
The decision of inviting Arpaio to speak about freedom of speech and freedom of the press was
comparable to inviting pathologist Jack Kevorkian to speak about the right to live. Therefore,
protesting forces were set in motion, understandably, immediately after an announcement about
his appearance was made, and at the end, demonstrators were running the show both inside and
outside of the school’s building in Downtown Phoenix.
Not that Sheriff Arpaio needs such invitations to have protesters and journalists following him
around. Both protesters and reporters have been consistently following him around the county for
a few years, particularly since the Fall of 2007, when a furniture store in East Phoenix hired off-duty
sheriff deputies to patrol their premises, allegedly to fence off day laborers from their property.
Then, in the Spring of 2008, the Maricopa County Sheriff Department (MCSO) systematically began
conducting “crime suppression” operations in areas where immigration populations concentrate, a
move evidently intended to arrest undocumented immigrants.
Prior and after Monday night’s event, Sheriff Arpaio’s opponents set up a tone of disruption, a tactic
that has been employed in other events where Arpaio makes public appearances, from book
presentations, to outdoor press conferences, to daily sit-ins outside the building where his offices
are located in downtown Phoenix.
Predictably, the disruption itself eventually took over during the Cronkite’s interview, aborting the
highly-criticized interview with Sheriff Arpaio by means of an obviously planned and uninterrupted
singing outburst by a small group of protesters inside Cronkite’s “First Amendment Forum” hall.
The unsurprising interruption froze the audience at first and led to an abrupt end of the interview,
15 minutes before its planned duration, a conclusion upsetting some and pleasing others. Some
students in the audience yelled at the singers to “shut up,” as the three professors, visibly
disappointed by the interference, rose up from their chairs. Sheriff Arpaio himself walked out of the
event, calling the continuous singing “ridiculous.” He left the building as he came in: using a back
door in the second floor, and flocked as usual by a contingent of bodyguards and other staff.
Even though some students were protesting by quietly holding signs against Arpaio, the first 45
minutes of the interview were orderly and undisrupted. When two groups of students moved in to
display two big hand-written banners, something about to happen was sensed in the forum’s
atmosphere, as if some people were taking assigned positions toward the end of the event.
Shortly after the two signs were displayed, the singing group began their planned action.
Arpaio’s responses and non-responses to questions asked by the panel –composed by ASU
journalism professor Rick Rodriguez, Cronkite News Service, broadcast director Susan Green, and
CNS digital news director Steve Elliot– kept him afloat, as he is used to his characteristic rhetorical
arsenal and to the resource of evasiveness. To corner Arpaio, a journalist needs more than though
questions: it takes accurate and precise data.
Altogether, the event was a banquet for Arpaio’s hunger for attention. Journalists, photographers,
TV cameras, professors, students, supporters, protestors, police officers, songs, signs, chants,
arguments, record attendance: all and every part of the spectacle prepared just for “His
Toughness,” Joseph M. Arpaio, the ruler of Maricopa County, positioned at the center of an event
otherwise ordinary and usual.
The fact that Arpaio’s interview was cut 15 minutes short mostly hurt the interviewers' chance to
continue asking him questions, as well as the journalism students that were there for their own
learning experience. Demonstrators had the right to protest Arpaio, but didn’t have the right to
spoil the interview session for the faculty and students.
Protesters invaded the building’s lobby after they learned the sheriff had walked out, putting on a
loud celebration any unfamiliar observer would have thought was a party over Arpaio’s defeat in a
reelection.
Verbal confrontations between the sheriff’s foes and friends continued outside the building for a
while. Ugly words and angry expressions in the midst of pro and con Arpaio’s signs and American
flags slowly faded, as people began to go home.
The almost octogenarian sheriff left the place perhaps feeling unscratched, and thinking that he can
set up press conferences any time he wants, anyway. Protestors will continue to follow Arpaio and
so will the media, so he in no way will lack the attention he seeks and enjoys no matter what.
for faculty, staff and students of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication,
turned into a scenario where practical lessons about grassroots organizing and protesting set the
tone of the event and dominated the dynamics of the night.
The forum, organized by Cronkite, could it have been just another “Meet the Press” event, but the
very name and likeness of the guest assured a night as controversial as him. Maricopa Sheriff Joe
Arpaio –synonymous of protest and approval, abuse of power and support, and defiance and
enforcement, depending on what side of the polarizing debate a person stands on– guaranteed a
full house, heated arguments and protests.
The decision of inviting Arpaio to speak about freedom of speech and freedom of the press was
comparable to inviting pathologist Jack Kevorkian to speak about the right to live. Therefore,
protesting forces were set in motion, understandably, immediately after an announcement about
his appearance was made, and at the end, demonstrators were running the show both inside and
outside of the school’s building in Downtown Phoenix.
Not that Sheriff Arpaio needs such invitations to have protesters and journalists following him
around. Both protesters and reporters have been consistently following him around the county for
a few years, particularly since the Fall of 2007, when a furniture store in East Phoenix hired off-duty
sheriff deputies to patrol their premises, allegedly to fence off day laborers from their property.
Then, in the Spring of 2008, the Maricopa County Sheriff Department (MCSO) systematically began
conducting “crime suppression” operations in areas where immigration populations concentrate, a
move evidently intended to arrest undocumented immigrants.
Prior and after Monday night’s event, Sheriff Arpaio’s opponents set up a tone of disruption, a tactic
that has been employed in other events where Arpaio makes public appearances, from book
presentations, to outdoor press conferences, to daily sit-ins outside the building where his offices
are located in downtown Phoenix.
Predictably, the disruption itself eventually took over during the Cronkite’s interview, aborting the
highly-criticized interview with Sheriff Arpaio by means of an obviously planned and uninterrupted
singing outburst by a small group of protesters inside Cronkite’s “First Amendment Forum” hall.
The unsurprising interruption froze the audience at first and led to an abrupt end of the interview,
15 minutes before its planned duration, a conclusion upsetting some and pleasing others. Some
students in the audience yelled at the singers to “shut up,” as the three professors, visibly
disappointed by the interference, rose up from their chairs. Sheriff Arpaio himself walked out of the
event, calling the continuous singing “ridiculous.” He left the building as he came in: using a back
door in the second floor, and flocked as usual by a contingent of bodyguards and other staff.
Even though some students were protesting by quietly holding signs against Arpaio, the first 45
minutes of the interview were orderly and undisrupted. When two groups of students moved in to
display two big hand-written banners, something about to happen was sensed in the forum’s
atmosphere, as if some people were taking assigned positions toward the end of the event.
Shortly after the two signs were displayed, the singing group began their planned action.
Arpaio’s responses and non-responses to questions asked by the panel –composed by ASU
journalism professor Rick Rodriguez, Cronkite News Service, broadcast director Susan Green, and
CNS digital news director Steve Elliot– kept him afloat, as he is used to his characteristic rhetorical
arsenal and to the resource of evasiveness. To corner Arpaio, a journalist needs more than though
questions: it takes accurate and precise data.
Altogether, the event was a banquet for Arpaio’s hunger for attention. Journalists, photographers,
TV cameras, professors, students, supporters, protestors, police officers, songs, signs, chants,
arguments, record attendance: all and every part of the spectacle prepared just for “His
Toughness,” Joseph M. Arpaio, the ruler of Maricopa County, positioned at the center of an event
otherwise ordinary and usual.
The fact that Arpaio’s interview was cut 15 minutes short mostly hurt the interviewers' chance to
continue asking him questions, as well as the journalism students that were there for their own
learning experience. Demonstrators had the right to protest Arpaio, but didn’t have the right to
spoil the interview session for the faculty and students.
Protesters invaded the building’s lobby after they learned the sheriff had walked out, putting on a
loud celebration any unfamiliar observer would have thought was a party over Arpaio’s defeat in a
reelection.
Verbal confrontations between the sheriff’s foes and friends continued outside the building for a
while. Ugly words and angry expressions in the midst of pro and con Arpaio’s signs and American
flags slowly faded, as people began to go home.
The almost octogenarian sheriff left the place perhaps feeling unscratched, and thinking that he can
set up press conferences any time he wants, anyway. Protestors will continue to follow Arpaio and
so will the media, so he in no way will lack the attention he seeks and enjoys no matter what.
Eduardo Barraza is a journalist and writer,
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
Barriozona Magazine's editor, and director of
the Hispanic Insitute of Social Issues.
E-mail: editor@barriozona.com
| RELATED ARTICLES Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio to “Meet the Press” at ASU's School of Journalism in Downtown Phoenix Reverend Sharpton: Arizona an Equal Place When Maricopa Sheriff “Is Out of Town” |
| M U L T I M E D I A |
| VIDEO |